Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Scene reporter William Dean Hinton seems to have dug up the reasons Ludye Wallace and Adam Dread voted for Kay Brooks. Adam Dread, a registered Republican, told Hinton that he just wanted somebody different than Gracie Porter, who came across to him as "cocky." Hinton does not divulge whether Dread attended the District 5 candidates forum or talked with either Porter or Brooks before the vote. My take on Dread's response, given Republican boss Jon Crisp's intimate connections to this vote is that Dread is set on higher political aspirations. Patronage matters, especially to partisans. However, how is Boss Crisp going to reconcile the links he sees with Vanderbilt and the liberal yankees whom he assumes are running MNPS with the fact that Adam Dread is a Vanderbilt alum? Think he'll hold it against Dread?

Speaking of patronage, if Hinton's sources are true, Ludye Wallace kicked it old skool in the patronage that he exercised in exchange for his yes-vote for Kay Brooks. Reportedly, he traded his vote in exchange for support to close an alley in our district. In true Ludye-style, he didn't return Hinton's phone call. You can believe that if I ever see Ludye around the North End, I will definitely follow up with him about this. But just keep this in mind: if Ludye did trade his vote for support, that means that someone else (possibly Michael Craddock? Craddock has denied that votes were exchanged) was on the other end of that exchange. Ludye's not the only guilty party if reports are true.